I gently pushed a flat bladed screwdriver where I could between the rubber and carbs and tried rocking them about a bit. A bit more leavering with a pice of softwood and pop, the back left was out. The others then came out really easily. I will probably leave them off a while since there is other stuff I need to do so I hope the rubbers do not shrink. Maybe I will have to take them off and soak in petrol or something as has been suggested.

The throttle cable adjusters do not rotate on the end of the cables which made them difficult to get off. Is penetrating oil best to try to free them?

Is there any benefit to the 2.5mm carb hole mod on a road bike, and any downside. I am wondering why Honda did not make it larger.

One of the reasons I removed the carbs is to see if the valve seals are leaking. I always got a bit of what looked like thin black oil on the plugs when trying to start it after leaving the bike more then a couple of days. I would have to clean all the plugs to get it going. Never any smoke from the exhaust though. It has done this since I bought the bike when it was only a couple of years old. I squirted oil around the base of the valve springs and hand turned the engine over a couple of times. So far no sign of ony oil on the stems looking through the intakes.

Thanks for all your help.

Glad you got them off in the end save yourself a lot of grief when it comes to reffiting with new rubbers I've read on here that rvf ones make it less difficult to refit .

The first time I spent hours and lots of cursing refitting them but after some helpful tips from the folk on this forum I now have a technique that makes it an undaunting job to do now.

You could try reviving the 20yr old rubbers but for the cost of new parts its hardly worth the pain as they may be perished and split at a later date on you .

vfrman wrote:

GeeTee wrote:I always refit them with a bit of grease smeared inside the rubbers

Makes the carbs a lot easier to remove next time

What type of grease? I wouldn't want to use anything that can react with the rubber and break it down.

I use silicon grease - for electrical connections. Seems to work well and rubber not showing any reaction

New inlet rubbers are only £35 a set - just replace them

Squirting oil around the valve stem seals won't really prove anything. Hot oil is a lot thinner when engine has been running, plus the oil can be pulled past worn seals by vacuum in the cylinders. Unless the motor is using a lot of oil or you have the heads off for repairs, it's hardly worth replacing the stem seals. Maybe worth doing a compression test to see if rings/valves are ok?

Hot oil is a lot thinner when engine has been running, plus the oil can be pulled past worn seals by vacuum in the cylinders.

It only has the problem when left for a few days, so the oil would have been cold when it was getting past the seals if it is getting past them. Never made sense anyway, it never smoked and revved to the red line cleanly. No sign of any problem when ridden regularly. Nothing makes sense though.

Found this picture. It is what my plugs looked like after failing to start after the bike had not been run for a few days. It would then start after cleaning the plugs. Happened randomly on any or all cylinders. Has done this for years, just want to try and sort it now.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk48 ... G_1958.jpg